Justice and Security (Northern Ireland) Bill

My Lords, I support my noble friend’s amendment and what he and the noble Baroness have said. I remind the Minister that in responding to me in Committee on the previous amendment, which I have not moved this time, he said: "““I do not expect to see the remaining threat””—" he was referring to paramilitaries and criminal gangs— "““regress significantly any time soon, although I very much hope that I and the Government are wrong in that assessment””.—[Official Report, 21/3/07; col. GC 232.]" That is the world we live in and we want our citizens to have confidence in the community restorative justice systems. There is no chance that they will even believe that the schemes are realistic, except in certain limited areas, if the amendment is not accepted and they are run, as they are now, by ex-paramilitaries or paramilitaries.